Setting up a holding page
A holding page is a temporary front cover for your website which can be used if you’re not ready for your website to be live or if you need to temporarily take your website down for any reason.
For any accounts created after 23 July 2021 the holding page will automatically be activated, and to deactivate it you will need to sign up to a paid package.
While your holding page is active your website will not be live and cannot be visited by users without them knowing and using the password to enter.
Here is an example of a holding page:
• Configuring the holding page
• Viewing your website while the holding page is active
Configuring the holding page
To configure your holding page select from the menu.
Is the holding page active or inactive?
Use the switch to turn the holding page on or off.
Warning!
You must be signed up to a paid package in order to turn the holding page off.
Holding page logo
By default the holding page will use the logo you have uploaded to your account.
If you have not uploaded a logo, then your company name will display instead.
If you would like to display an alternative image, select Choose file under ‘Holding Page Logo’ and upload an image from your computer’s hard drive.
Holding page text
Use the CMS page editor to add and stylise text for your holding page.
Do you want to add a newsletter field to the page?
Place a tick in the box beside ‘Yes’ to add a newsletter field on your holding page that allows visitors to your website to enter their email and be added to your newsletter subscriber page.
If you have connected your account to MailChimp, Klaviyo or Mailerlite, any email addresses entered will be added in your account with them instead.
Untick the box to disable this feature.
Access password
While your holding page is active when a user visits your website they will be taken to the holding page.
The holding page can be deactivated by entering a password which you set using this field.
Enter in the field whatever you want the password to be.
This password will not be encrypted by the system, so do not use a 'sensitive' password here (such as one that you use on other websites or your ShopWired account password).
Visitors to your site would need to be given this password in order to view your website while your holding page is active.
Once you have finished changing any of the above settings select save changes.
Please note!
Whenever save changes is selected in the admin system for configuring the holding page, any users who have used the password to login to see your website will be automatically logged out. They will simply need to enter the password again to login.
View Holding Page
Select the View Holding Page button in the top right corner to see what your holding page looks like:
Viewing your website while the holding page is active
Viewing normally by using your domain name
When your holding page is active your website will not be live. When a user attempts to visit your site, by entering your domain name into their browser's address bar, they will see the holding page. If a user knows the access password (which you configured within your account), they can use the Enter the website button to gain access to your website:
When a user selects this button they will be prompted to enter the password. If they enter the correct password they will then be able to access and interact with your website.
Viewing through the admin system
When your holding page is active and you select View Website within the admin system your website will still appear to you as normal, but there will be a banner at the top of the page indicating that your website is protected by a password:
Use the Manage the password link to be returned to the holding page configuration within the admin system to alter your password.
Use the Preview holding page link to view your holding page.
Select Edit theme to open the live preview editor for your theme.